Eternal: The End of an Age
by Elvana
Summary: The balance must always be preserved. A tragedy in one world...a miracle in another. May exhibit Mary-Sueish tendencies but is NOT.
1. Prologue

Prologue

It was late afternoon as Elena Bellisario sat at her computer finishing a long essay on ancient river valley cultures. Elena was a third year Anthropology major at UMD. Her head ached;

she leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table and massage her temples. She sighed and closed her laptop, pushing back from her desk; she was burnt out, she wasn't getting

any more work done tonight. She looked at the clock, 9:00; it was Friday night and she and the girls were hitting the clubs.

She moved to stand before the full length mirror and examined her reflection. She stood around 5'5'' barefoot; her build was athletic but curvy and she had exotic olive hued skin. Her

hair cascaded in dark shining curls halfway down her back and a few shorter strands formed unruly bangs that framed her face. Her brows arched elegantly over large almond eyes the

color of dark melted chocolate that always seemed to sparkle with some secret mirth. The corners of her mouth turned upward, lending to the impression of secret mirth, and her

bottom lip formed an enticing pout. She was beautiful, and she knew it; but she didn't base her existence on it.

She stretched luxuriously and went over to open her closet. She rifled through her clothes looking for something suitable to wear; she wanted something sexy but understated. She

chose dark skinny jeans and a loose red off-the-shoulder top with tight bands around the hips and wrists. She left her hair loose and put on a gold choker, gold bangles, and large gold

hoops. She finished off the outfit with 2 ½ inch heeled black mock cowboy boots. She threw a few necessities into a small gold handbag and headed out the door to meet her friends in D.C.

* * *

Her head was spinning as she left the club, good lord those tequila shots really were deadly. Despite her low heels, she stumbled slightly as she stepped to the curb to hail a taxi. The

first few were full and then one screeched to a halt, on the other side of the street. She stepped out into the road digging through her bag for chap-stick, almost there, she cursed as

she heard her phone hit the ground and she stooped down to pick it up without thinking. She saw light, heard screeching, time seemed to slow as she straightened and then she was

flying backwards; she hit the ground, dazed, someone was screaming, lights, noise, then nothing, sweet nothingness as she faded from consciousness, then…


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I dont own Lord of the Rings or anyone or anyplace you recognize and, sadly, I'm not making any money from this.

Chapter 1

Pain. Her head was pounding, her body felt like it had been hit by a truck; oh wait…she had been, at least she dreamed that she had been, but it couldn't have really happened. Could

it? Her bed felt harder than usual and she was cold...she must have left a window open and kicked off the covers during her dream. Screw blankets, the light behind her eyelids was

hurting her head, she reached over to grab a pillow to put over her head and froze. Frantically she re-felt the surface to assure herself of its reality; was that…_grass_? What in the hell

had she done last night? Well that settled it, she was never drinking again. She groaned and opened her eyes, levering herself up and looking to figure out where she was. With her

luck she was on the Whitehouse lawn or something and would soon be arrested. But when she looked around, she fervently wished that was where she was.

She was lying on a grassy knoll, surrounded by woods. Well fuck my life, she said to herself as she jerked upright setting off a dizzying wave of nausea. When it had passed, she stood

up slowly and checked herself over. Her bag was lying in the grass next her feet, so she had not been robbed; she was still fully clothed, so she hadn't been raped. Sighing, she picked

up her purse to call her friend Aya, who she had been out with last night, to figure out what happened. But her phone wasn't in her purse. With a sinking feeling she remembered

dropping it, remembered getting hit by the truck, remembered…_dying?_

"Oh…Shit," she whispered, sitting roughly on the ground as her legs gave out beneath her. She had died last night. _She remembered dying._ So where was she now? Elena had never

believed in God, didn't believe in heaven or hell; she had always thought that when you died, that was it, the end of the road, and she had been fine with that. But she was Italian,

raised Catholic, and this place sure didn't look like any description of hell she'd ever heard; she supposed it was pretty enough to be heaven, but it just didn't follow that she would be

feeling this much pain in heaven. The presence of pain also served to rule out that she might still be dreaming. So…where was she?

Well, wherever she was, Elena realized that staying here would do her little good. She had just gotten to her feet and was trying to pick a direction to walk in when she heard the

foliage rustle behind her. She turned, heart pounding, and immediately decided that she had in fact ended up in hell. The demon before her had slimy black skin and vaguely resembled

a grossly disfigured human. It was exceedingly filthy and was surrounded by a putrid odor. It wore crude leather armor over chain mail and a weapon belt that caught her eye because

it was so well made, from which hung two magnificent curved blades. Somehow in the midst of her fear and disgust, it occurred to her that she had seen something like it somewhere

before. Its yellow eyes fixed upon her and it grinned, crooked, jagged, teeth at her, drool sliding from the corner of its mouth.

'Oh shit, oh shit, shit, holy shit' ran through her head like a mantra as the creature advanced slowly across the clearing drawing one of shining silver blades that hung at its side. Her

breathing slowed and her mind emptied as she prepared for his attack. It only lasted a couple of seconds, but in her mind it happened much slower. Its arm went up with the blade and

she darted forward, twisting under the sweep of the blade, coming up behind it, her hand snapping out to shatter the elbow joint. As it howled in pain and surprise she snagged, the

other blade and stabbed it into the back of its neck. It froze for a moment, and then it crumpled, landing face-down with the wicked curved blade sticking upright out of its neck. It was

over.

She struggled to swallow past the lump in her throat, her hands shaking with adrenaline as she strove to rationalize what had just happened, to somehow reconcile it with reality. As

she stood, transfixed above the grotesque body, she heard a sound that curdled her blood and spurred her to action. It was a howl. Oh God, there were more of them. Elena

wrenched the blade from the back of the dead creature's neck, gagging as black blood gushed from the open wound reminding her bizarrely of the Beverly Hillbillies striking oil. She

shook the thought away as she quickly relieved him, "It," of that magnificent weapons belt, snagged her bag, and set off at a dead run in the opposite direction of the howls.

* * *

Elena ran until she could run no more. She fell to her knees, gasping in precious air. She knew they would track her, God, she had to find a way to get away. As she knelt trying to get

her breath back, trying to rally her thoughts into some semblance of order, she heard a sound that was godsend to her; _running water_. They couldn't track her through water. Through

sheer force of will she wrenched herself off the ground and forced her burning muscles to carry her towards the sound of water.

She stumbled across the rocky riverbed and hesitated, hating to ruin her boots, but only a moment; then she wadded in. It never deepened substantially, and she was able to wade all

the way across. As she reached the other side, a thought occurred to her, and instead of exiting, she turned and ran downstream in the shallows. She had not gone far when pain

exploded in in her left shoulder; in shock, she looked down at the barbed black arrow that protruded from her shoulder. Elena stumbled forward out of the water, falling to her hands

and knees, and turned clutching her shoulder. There were three of them. _Shit_. She started to rise as the one who had evidently shot her began to fit another arrow to his bow, but the

larger one stopped him, gesturing across the river towards her. The others grinned evilly and they started across the river.

Elena cursed aloud, pushing to her feet and swaying a little; and suddenly noticing that the river seemed to be flowing upstream. As they reached the middle her legs began to give out

and she heard rushing in her ears; the odd thing was that the demons seemed to hear it too. As she collapsed she saw the demons go down in raging waters. Suddenly, in the midst

of her fading consciousness, she realized why the creatures looked familiar; '_Orcs_…Holy crap' was all she had time to think before the darkness took her.

* * *

ok...soooo you all know what to do. reviews = more story


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